Car-door operating mechanism



(No Model.)

PRINCE.

Gar'D-oqr Operating-Mechanism.

No. 230,570. Pa tented July 27; 1880.

WITNESSES:

ATTORNEYS.

Em PHOTO-UTNOGRIFHER WASHINGTON, D. C

NITED STATES PATENT OFFIQE;

LOUIS PRINCE, OF NASHVILLE, OHIO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 230,570, dated July 27,1880.

Application filed June 10, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LOUIs PRINCE, of Nashville, in the county of Holmes and State of Ohio, have invented a newand Improved Means for Operating Doors in Elevated-Railway and StreetCars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, andexact description of the same.

My invention relates to cars for street or elevated railroads, arrangedwith transverse seats extending the entire width of the ear and providedwith a series of doors upon the sides of the car which communicateseparately with each seat.

The object of my invention is to provide means for operating a series ofsuch doors simultaneously from the end of the car, so that they may beunder the control of the driver or conductor 5 and theimprovementconsists in a car provided with a series of sliding doors arranged uponits sides that are coupled together by a horizontal bar provided at oneend with a rack that is moved backward and forward by gear-wheelsoperated upon by a bar arranged vertically at one end of the car, thatis reciprocated by a hand-lever within con-- venient reach of theconductor or other person upon the platform, as will be hereinafterdescribed. Either sin le or double doors may be employed, if desirec andthe improvement further consists in the employment of double horizontalrack-bars for moving the doors in opposite directions, and additionalgearing for actuating the horizontal rack-bars by means of a singlehand-lever and vertical bar, as will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of one end ofa car with its casing broken away to show the mechanism for operatingthe doors, with the doors closed; Fig. 2, an enlarged sectionalelevation of the actuating mechanism detached when the doors are open 5Fig.3, a plan view of the same with parts of the mechanism broken awayand shown in dotted lines, and Fig. 4 a sectional detail in the line a".90 of Fig. 3.

The frame and body A ofth'e car are provided with end doors and windowsof well-known construction. The seats B of the car are arrangedtransversely, and extend entirely across the car. Each seat is arrangeto communicate with doors 0 0, upon opposite sides of the car, and afoot-board, A, extending the entire length of the car, is arranged belowthe sills of the doors, to enable the passengers to enter and leave thecar from the sides in a direct manner, without having to pass throughthe entire length of the interior of the car.

In this instance each door-frame is provided with double doors 0 C,arranged independently upon-separate bars D D, secured, respectively, tothe lower ends of the doors 0 G,

and arranged horizontally alongside of each other, to connect a seriesof doors. The bars D D extend beyond the doorway, toward the end of thecar, and are providedat their ends with toothed racks d d, which arearranged tangentially upon spur-gears E E, that intermesh with eachother, by which means the bars D D and their doors 0 O are moved inopposite directions.

The bars D D are supported at their rack ends upon the gear-wheels E E,and upon their opposite ends rest upon friction-rollers ff, journaled tobracket F, secured to the framing of the car-floor. The gear-wheels E Eare journaled to bracket-plates E secured to the under side of the floorof the car, and are secured upon the bracket-plate in such manner thatthey will intermesh with each other at their adjacent edges only, theirouter edges being extended sufficiently to come opposite or in the sameplane with the rack-bar to which it is connected. A gear-pinion, E isarranged upon the inner side and secured to the axle of the wheel E, sothat the wheel E and pinion E will turn together.

A rod, G, is arranged vertically at the end and outer side of thecar-body, and is provided with a rack, g, upon the outer side of itsupper'end, and is forked at its lower end, the outer prong or fork, g,being held in place and moved freely against the grooved face of afriction-roller, G, and the inner prong, 9 being provided with a rackthat gears'with the pinion E and transmits motion to the gearwheels E E,and through them to the horizontal rack-bars and sliding doors.

The upper end of the rod G is held in place loyv a guide-plate, 9secured to the casingyand is connected with a toothed segment-plate, H,that intermeshes with its toothed rack, and is provided with ahand-lever, H, pivoted to bracket h upon the outer side of the casing,by which means the rod G may be conveniently and easily reciprocatedfrom the platform of the car, and the doors thereby opened and closed bymeans of the intermediate mechanism above described.

The doors 0 G are arranged to slide between the inner and outer casingof the side panels or walls of the car, so as to be concealed and out ofthe way when open.

It will be readily understood that the doors upon each side of the carare operated by means of separate mechanism.

Instead of connecting the entire series of doors upon the side of theear to horizontal bars extending from one end of the car to the other,sepa ate bars may be employed to extend from each end to near the middleof the car, and each be connected with one-half the doors or halt-doorsot' the car, by which means the doors may be opened and closed with butlittle effort. This arrangement, however,

would require that the doors in the forward end of the car be operatedby the driver, and the doors at the rear end of the car would be openedand closed by the conductor.

It will be readily seen that the doors may be opened and closed bypushing them apart 1 or pulling them together in the usual way, as thereno locking mechanism to interfere with their movement.

\Vhat I claim as new is-- 1. In a door-operating mechanism for street,and railroad cars, the combination of the carbody A, doors 0,horizontal rack-bar I), gearwheels E E", vertical bar G, and hand-leverH, these parts being combined and arranged for joint operationsuhstz'mtially as specifiech 2. In E1 (10()1 0})Glfld]lllg mechanism forstreet and railroad cars, the combination of the carbody A, a series ofhalf-doors, 0, connected to horizontal rack-bar D, and a correspondingseries of half-doors connected to the raek-bar]), the gear-wheels E E,intermeshing with each other and also with racks upon the ends of thebars I) I),the pinion E and vertical rack'rod G, geared to the pinion atits lower end and reciprocated vertically by a hand-lever secured to itsupper end, by which means the halfdoors may be moved in oppositedirections, to open and close them, from the platform of the car,substantially as described.

LOUIS PRINCE.

Witnesses:

SoLoN (J. KnMoN, UHAs. A. Pn'r'rrr.

